The Immunogold Rush

Immunogold labeling is the method of choice for staining cell and tissue sections for electron microscopy, but the manual procedure involves a series of short wash-and-wait steps that can add up to an entire day of tedious bench work. Bannock-burn, Ill.-based Leica Microsystems' new immunogold labeling system solves this problem by automating most of the process.

The EM IGL, which lists for $16,000 (US), reduces the amount of time and labor needed for staining by 70% to 80%, says Ann Korsen, product manager for Leica http://www.leica-microsystems.com, giving technicians the opportunity to pursue more interesting tasks in the lab. "When you do [immunogold staining] by hand, basically you can't do anything else," explains Hong Yi, supervisor at the Emory University School of Medicine Microscopy Core Facility in Atlanta. But with Leica's instrument, "you load it and walk away for a few hours at a time," says Yi, whose...